Clover experts - educate me!

Chipdasqrrl

Chipdasqrrl

Active Member
There are a lot of different types of clovers, and I was hoping some of you could explain which clovers are best for what, and what your favorite clovers or clover mixes are.
I know a fair amount about a few different clovers but I’m sure there’s even more that I don’t know.
 
No expert here....in fact...I plant cow food! Ladino white perennial clover mixed with some medium red clover and maybe some chicory and I call it good enough. I am sure there is better stuff out there...but I have never really messed with the BOB seeds before and my local seed source caters to the pasture market...so like I said. I mostly plant cow food. Turns out the deer can't read and eat it anyways!
 
Another non-expert here but...a lover of perennial clover. Regal Graze ladino and Pennington durana are my mainstays. Feed critters just about year round down here. Here's my trial and error since 2011. Arrowleaf clover in 2011 that grew to knee high in the spring of 2012 but was over and done by late May. Deer didn't seem to browse it much when it was knee high. I assume it was because we had so much browse available as green up is full-blown by early April down here. Fixation Balansa planted in the fall of 2015. Won't plant again.

Switched over to perennial white clovers in 2015 and haven't looked back. I love the stuff and so do the deer. They are in it just about every day. Come summer, the bachelor bucks run to the stuff in the afternoon. In full disclosure, I have no competing ag (beans n corn), within miles of me so that may contribute to having so many deer in the clover.

Here's a pic of our cabin field clover I took this past Monday. Everything right of the trekking pole is ladino and durana clover. Wheat to the left. Plenty of rain and mild temps still have the clover growing.
Dec 31st.jpg

Here's a few pics from last summer of bucks coming in to the same field munching on clover.
July 28th bucks.jpg Cabin field clover bucks.jpg

And one of my favorite pics from this past summer in another plot that has ladino n durana clover planted around the perimeter plus quite a bit that has taken over the interior of the plot.
Bean field clover bucks.jpg
 
Triple C said:
Another non-expert here but...a lover of perennial clover. Regal Graze ladino and Pennington durana are my mainstays. Feed critters just about year round down here. Here's my trial and error since 2011. Arrowleaf clover in 2011 that grew to knee high in the spring of 2012 but was over and done by late May. Deer didn't seem to browse it much when it was knee high. I assume it was because we had so much browse available as green up is full-blown by early April down here. Fixation Balansa planted in the fall of 2015. Won't plant again.

Switched over to perennial white clovers in 2015 and haven't looked back. I love the stuff and so do the deer. They are in it just about every day. Come summer, the bachelor bucks run to the stuff in the afternoon. In full disclosure, I have no competing ag (beans n corn), within miles of me so that may contribute to having so many deer in the clover.

Here's a pic of our cabin field clover I took this past Monday. Everything right of the trekking pole is ladino and durana clover. Wheat to the left. Plenty of rain and mild temps still have the clover growing.
View attachment 14298

Here's a few pics from last summer of bucks coming in to the same field munching on clover.
View attachment 14299 View attachment 14300

And one of my favorite pics from this past summer in another plot that has ladino n durana clover planted around the perimeter plus quite a bit that has taken over the interior of the plot.
View attachment 14301
Click to expand...

Beautiful pic. Interested in your experience with fixation balansa. I planted some last fall for first time as it is supposed to do well in wetter property. Certainly we have that. Too early for me to have any report. How did it work for you?
 
Triple C said:
Here's a pic of our cabin field clover I took this past Monday. Everything right of the trekking pole is ladino and durana clover. Wheat to the left. Plenty of rain and mild temps still have the clover growing.
View attachment 14298
Click to expand...
Looks good! Now picture a foot of white stuff covering that beautiful field and you’ll know how I’m feeling right about now... I miss the sight of a green plot!
 
Baker said:
Beautiful pic. Interested in your experience with fixation balansa. I planted some last fall for first time as it is supposed to do well in wetter property. Certainly we have that. Too early for me to have any report. How did it work for you?
Click to expand...
Baker...It just didn't work for me. Planted it in the fall of 2015 with winter rye as a nurse crop. Came up fine but simply faded away the following spring and did not reseed. I'd be interested to hear from others that had better results than me. Only tried it the one time when it was being advertised quite a bit.

Here's a pic from March of 2016 when it was just starting to take off. By late May, it was kind of like arrowleaf, ran it's course and didn't get an reseeding out of it. Again, only tried it once when I was just really learning about different clovers so hopefully others will chime in that had better results than me.
fixation clover.jpg
 
Chipdasqrrl said:
Looks good! Now picture a foot of white stuff covering that beautiful field and you’ll know how I’m feeling right about now... I miss the sight of a green plot!
Click to expand...
It that's LC's clover thread, pretty sure I printed that one and put it in a file just in case his all his threads didn't survive. He was my inspiration for perennial clover plantings, particularly around the perimeter of larger destination plots.
 
Triple C said:
It that's LC's clover thread, pretty sure I printed that one and put it in a file just in case his all his threads didn't survive. He was my inspiration for perennial clover plantings, particularly around the perimeter of larger destination plots.
Click to expand...
Gotcha. I remember reading through his threads on the QDMA forum but it's been quite a while now; I'd really like to read them again. Are you able to get on the outreach outdoors website? I can't get it to load
 
All good advice above!
Durana, RegalGraze, Advantage, ........ all Ladino's for a perennial plot. I am converting more and more of my plots over to perennials or at least strips of them. Just hard to beat, once you get your soil right.

Clover soil.JPG
Clover soil-1.JPG
Imperial Whitetail Institute2.JPG
Seeds per pound.JPG
Durana Graph.JPG
durana yield.JPG
 
My next clover planting will be equal parts, Jumbo ladino, Kopu II, medium red. Alice blows. I base this off what worked best for me on the silt loam soils I had in Iowa. As for BOB I found whitetail institute clover to be a good, durable, product in both Michigan and Iowa.

G
 
Just my experiences. I also basically 90%perenials. Cheaper less work and less intrusion into land w the deer. Clovers are nearly a year round food. I use coop ladino/ RC/ chicory mix. I will say some WI clover is the best I’ve ever planted for withstanding browse but not that much diff.
These fore and aft are the above mix. The fore plot was planted 9 yrs ago w a bedapring and lawn roller and bag spreader for fert and seed. Always plant w a grain and in the fall. I top seed late March each yr and fert 0-20-20.
8fbdb85a100036e81157e1ee102a4e8e.jpg

Now let me freak you out. I no longer worry much of grasses or weeds. Clover does fine and deer still happy and I save cost of sprays and time. Yea I know it’s ugly.
6e1d08211d3490212d0ec0f9e4460a5e.jpg

But see.. clover is there and doing fine. Grasses and weeds actually give some protection w freezes allowing clovers to extend into Jan. I also oversees them in fall w WR for a natural inhibitor of unwanted. See if you can find monocultures in nature’s plantings. It don’t happen. .
d4ad28dcb18b499c7192b76304fd67ef.jpg

And you can mow it occasionally if you want it look pretty. All clover mixes what you see. Good luck.
3080dc77d9c68a92d7d75d6bb4f1e65d.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
George said:
My next clover planting will be equal parts, Jumbo ladino, Kopu II, medium red. Alice blows. I base this off what worked best for me on the silt loam soils I had in Iowa. As for BOB I found whitetail institute clover to be a good, durable, product in both Michigan and Iowa.

G
Click to expand...
George...What are the benefits and growth carahter of Kopu II & medium reds? I've never tried either.
 
AC/TC. about the only clover seeds more money than Kopu are BOB, but that stuff never let me down, easy to grow well, held up in wet and dry, and bounced back well. Medium red is just adding variety and good food that grows around naturally for most folks, grew well in wet silt loam, an annual that reseeds it's self. Jumbo was the side by side that put alice away.

G
 
Dogghr - You and I agree on clover. I like planting in the fall and weeds don't bother me and dang sure don't bother the deer.

If a person wants to set the bush hog higher off the ground to clip the weeds just clip the top of the clover, it will branch out and get bushier.

Hard to beat clover in most locations. As George said, get the pH right and you will get a good food plot for deer. We like to add chicory in ours.

Wayne
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Drycreek
Undecided, but leaning !😁
2
Replies
36
Views
2K
Drycreek
Drycreek
Shufigo
Best clover and cereal seed choices for new partial shade plot.
Replies
6
Views
2K
TreeFan
T
KSQ2
Beating Cool Season Grasses
2
Replies
20
Views
2K
KSQ2
KSQ2
L
Seeding Rate Help
Replies
3
Views
1K
Drycreek
Drycreek
Native Hunter
Chicory filling an important time gap for me
Replies
18
Views
2K
MarkDarvin
MarkDarvin
Back
Top